How to make pour over coffee: everything you need to know

Pour over coffee is not complicated. It's meticulous. The difference between a mediocre cup and an excellent one comes down to three things: fresh-ground coffee, the right water temperature, and a controlled pour. This guide covers all three, plus the equipment that makes it repeatable.

What is pour over coffee?

Pour over is a manual brew method where you pour hot water over coffee grounds held in a filter. Water passes through the grounds by gravity and drips into a cup or carafe below. The method gives you complete control over brewing variables — water temperature, pour speed, and bloom time — which is why it produces a cleaner, more nuanced cup than most other methods.

The most popular pour over dripper is the Hario V60, though the Chemex and Kalita Wave are also widely used. The method is largely the same across all three.

The equipment you need

• Gooseneck kettle — the long spout gives you control over pour speed and direction. Standard kettles pour too fast.
• Digital scale with timer — pour over is a ratio-based method. You need 0.1g precision and a timer for bloom and total brew time.
• Burr grinder — blade grinders produce inconsistent particle sizes. You need a burr grinder for even extraction.
• V60 or similar dripper — glass is preferable (no material taste, easy to see extraction).
• V60 paper filters — rinse with hot water before use to remove paper taste and preheat the dripper.

If you're starting from scratch, the LastaForest Pour Over Gift Set includes all five pieces as a matched set. It's the most straightforward way to start without buying equipment piecemeal.

Step-by-step method

What you'll need: 15g of freshly-ground coffee, 250ml of water at 93–95°C, your dripper, scale and timer.

Step 1 — Set up. Place a rinsed filter in your dripper. Set the dripper on your scale over a cup or carafe. Tare the scale to zero.

Step 2 — Grind. Grind 15g of coffee to a medium consistency. Think coarse sand — not fine like espresso, not chunky like French press. If you're using fresh beans (roasted within 2–3 weeks), you'll notice CO2 off-gassing when you add water. That's a good sign.

Step 3 — Bloom. Start your timer. Pour 30g of water (2x the coffee weight) slowly and evenly over all the grounds. You want to wet everything but not flood it. Wait 30–45 seconds. During this time, the coffee releases CO2 and you'll see the grounds puff up and bubble slightly. This bloom phase ensures even extraction.

Step 4 — Pour. After the bloom, pour the remaining water in slow, steady circles. Work from the centre outward and back. Don't pour directly on the filter walls. Aim to finish all water by 2:30 — the full brew (including drain time) should complete by 3:30–4:00.

Step 5 — Drink. Remove the dripper. Give the cup a gentle swirl. Drink while hot — pour over is best within the first few minutes.

Coffee-to-water ratios

The 1:16.5 ratio (1g coffee per 16.5g water) is the standard starting point. Adjust to taste — stronger coffee means more grounds per volume of water, not a longer brew time.

The 4 most common mistakes

1. Water too hot. Boiling water (100°C) over-extracts coffee and produces bitterness. Let boiled water sit for 30–45 seconds, or use a temperature-controlled kettle set to 93–95°C.

2. Skipping the bloom. Pouring all your water at once without a bloom phase results in uneven extraction. CO2 in fresh beans creates channelling that the bloom prevents. Always bloom for 30–45 seconds.

3. Grinding too fine. A fine grind slows the drain dramatically and leads to over-extraction and bitterness. If your brew is taking more than 4:30, your grind is too fine. Adjust coarser.

4. Pre-ground coffee. Coffee stales rapidly after grinding. Oils and aromatics degrade within minutes. The single biggest upgrade you can make to your pour over is grinding fresh immediately before brewing.

Gear we recommend

For beginners, the LastaForest Pour Over Gift Set at $480 (was $768) is the cleanest starting point — everything matched, nothing missing, ready to use.

For those who already have a setup but want to improve their grind, the LastaForest Rechargeable Grinder at $265 (was $660) is the most impactful single upgrade.